Warning if you see eerie ‘blank image’ on Gmail and Outlook – you must act immediately
BE extra careful if you get a strange email - especially if it features a blank image.
Experts say hackers are using it as their latest scam tactic.
The blank image isn't as innocent as it may appear, it apparently hides malicious content.
It all starts with HTML attached to the email, according to Avanan who discovered it.
It's made to look like a Docusign document.
This is a popular electronic signing service used by many businesses.
Read more about scams
It allegedly uses a legitimate DocuSign page and asks you to review and sign the document.
But within this attachment is a blank image which does the dirty work.
When clicked, this is able to secretly redirect you to a malicious site in the background without you knowing it.
"Essentially, the hackers are hiding the malicious URL inside an empty image to bypass traditional scanning services," experts warn.
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Jeremy Fuchs, a cybersecurity researcher at Avanan, told : "Hackers can target practically anyone with this technique.
"Like most attacks, the idea is to use it to get something from the end-user.
"Any user with access to credentials or money is a viable target."
So be on the look out if you receive an email just like this, as it could well be a phishing scam.
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